Isaiah 18:4

For this is what the Lord has told me: “I will wait ¹  and watch from my place, like scorching heat produced by the sunlight, ²  like a cloud of mist ³  in the heat ⁴  of harvest.” ⁵ 

2Sa 23:4; Ps 72:6; Ps 132:13,14; Isa 12:6; Isa 14:32; Isa 18:7; Isa 26:21; Isa 31:9; Isa 46:13; Ho 5:15; Joe 3:17

¹ tn Or “be quiet, inactive”; NIV “will remain quiet.”

² tn Heb “like the glowing heat because of light.” The precise meaning of the line is uncertain.

³ tn Heb “a cloud of dew,” or “a cloud of light rain.”

⁴ tc Some medieval Hebrew mss, with support from the LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate, read “the day.”

⁵ sn It is unclear how the comparisons in v. 4b relate to the preceding statement. How is waiting and watching similar to heat or a cloud? For a discussion of interpretive options, see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:362.